Marcelino Gutierrez-Villalobos

By Rafael Rodríguez-Ponce, Fortino Mendoza-Mondragón, Moisés Martínez-Hernández and Marcelino Gutiérrez-Villalobos

Direct torque control, or DTC, is an electrical motor strategy characterized for simplicity and high performance when controlling industrial machines such as induction motors. However, this technique is often accompanied by an unwanted deformation on the torque and flux signals denominated ripple, which can cause audible noise and vibration on the motor. Considerable research has been presented on this topic; nevertheless the original DTC algorithm is often modified to the point that it is as complex as other motor control strategies. To solve this problem, a novel architecture was designed in order to reduce the sampling period to a point where torque ripple is minimal, while maintaining the classical DTC control structure. In this work, the original DTC control strategy was implemented on a Virtex-5 field programmable gate array (FPGA). For the code, a two´s complement fixed-point format and a variable word-size approach was followed using very-high-speed integrated circuit hardware description language (VHDL). Results were validated using MATLAB/Simulink simulations and experimental tests on an induction motor. With this new architecture, the authors hope to provide guidelines and insights for future research on DTC drives for induction motors.

Part of the book: Induction Motors